Battle Royale: American Edition
by Inviso
Summary: After the events of the 2014 edition of the Program, Kamana is out for revenge, and what better way to get revenge than by taking it out on an enemy country and its students. Read & Review! Note: Read Battle Royale 2014 first.
1. Prologue

"It's not smart…Miss Nakagawa…to attempt to flee from a hostile government…and not use an alias…"

Hanging from the ceiling, two rusted metal manacles bolted around her wrists, Noriko Nakagawa dangled over a pool of her own blood and tears. Standing before the youthful girl was a stern and mature looking Japanese woman, fully decked out in a black suit and tie. The room they were confined within was no larger than a jail cell with only two, worn-out, fluorescent lights that provided the dimmest of light to the dank and decrepit scene. The lighting made it hard for Noriko to see exactly who she was conversing with, and the additional swelling around her left eye wasn't helping to improve the situation. The tears in her right eye clouded her vision, but she could still see the woman pacing in front of her, each step precise and calculated. Even without her earlier statement, it was obvious the woman worked for the government. She seemed to be enjoying every second of Noriko's torment with a fascination that bordered on masochistic.

Both of Noriko's shoulders seemed to be dislocated from being hoisted up at such an odd angle. Her entire body was wracked with pain, bruises peppering her sensitive flesh along with several lacerations and wounds that lay beneath the torn holes in her outfit. The scar that crossed her cheek had been sliced open to fester, blood trickling down and hardening on her face like crimson tears. Noriko had no idea how these people had found her, or why they had traveled all the way to Los Angeles just to torture her, but it was slowly becoming clear that the Japanese government had something big planned. Her apartment had been broken into as she was settling down to write to Shuya, and several, large men burst in and attacked her. She was knocked unconscious, and when she awoke, she was in the presence of this woman. The woman talked for quite some time, asking for information, and Noriko refused every single request. This refusal had only earned her more beatings and injuries, and the damage was starting to take its toll. Noriko wasn't a physically strong girl, and she wasn't good at handling pain.

"Now Noriko, I think we both know by now that you won't last much longer. You know who I work for, or at least, you know the government I work for. You must also know that I'm going to kill you. Why not just make things easier for yourself? Take a quick and painless death, rather than suffer through this any longer."

"I…" Noriko cried softly, her voice weak, "I…won't…betray…Shuya…"

"That's fine. All I need from you right now are the aliases and locations of Akari Mitsuda, Yuji Naka, and Hara Kazuko. I know that you were the one who helped them hide out in this country Noriko. And I also know that you're the only person who can help me out here. Those three greatly damaged my reputation, and I simply want the opportunity to take my revenge."

"Revenge?"

"Why my dear girl…" the woman seemed to laugh at the question, "surely they mentioned me. My name is Kamana. Invisa Kamana. I was formerly their instructor."

"Y-You…"

"Are you going to tell me what I need to know Noriko?"

"Never…"

"That's a shame. You see, I had only two ways of dealing with this situation. One was to put a bullet between your eyes and end all this pain quickly. The other, which you've now forced me to implement, is to disembowel you with the same rusted knife that was formerly entrusted to Shiro Amasaki, and then force your own intestines down your throat."

"Wait!" Noriko cried out in terror, her eyes widening as she beheld the knife Kamana produced from her jacket pocket, "I'll talk! I'll talk! Just…don't. Anything but that! I don't care about those others! I only care about Shuya."

"Good girl," Kamana laughed, "I always knew you were weak. I'll make this quick once you tell me what I need to know."

Noriko spilled her guts, choosing that over the literal meaning of the phrase. She gave Kamana everything she needed to know, from location to the names they had taken on and the friends they had made. Of course, despite giving up everything she knew to Kamana, Noriko was still forced to hang there, her wrists bleeding as the metal cut into her flesh. Kamana left the room for what seemed like an eternity to Noriko, two heavily armed guards taking her place by the door. Were Noriko a casual observer, she probably would have found this comical, as everyone knows you don't need guards to ensure that no trouble comes from someone in her position. Her feet throbbed within the tight confines of her shoes, all the blood having flowed southward and cramming its way into her lower extremities.

Kamana reentered the room and dismissed the guards, leaving Noriko alone with her once again. Kamana's face held a frighteningly chipper smile. The woman was literally grinning from ear to ear, a modern day Cheshire cat, if you will. Reaching behind her back, she withdrew a pistol, and before Noriko's eyes, she checked the clip to make sure she had the ammo to get the job done. She, of course, already knew that she was fully prepared to end the young girl's life, but the look on Noriko's face, that look of terror and realization that she was, in fact, going to die, was what Kamana had been aiming for. Stepping forward, she raised the gun and placed it against Noriko's temple for a minute. Then after pondering, she relocated the barrel to the center of Noriko's forehead, so the girl would see it coming right before she died.

"I apologize for leaving you hanging," she laughed at her own pun, "but I had to make sure the information you gave me was accurate. It has been verified and a team has been sent out to collect the three fugitives. I greatly appreciate what you've helped me accomplish, Miss Nakagawa. I really do. And now, I think it's time to uphold my end of our little bargain."

With a quick motion of Kamana's finger, a bullet tore through Noriko Nakagawa's skull and exited out the other side before embedding itself in the concrete wall behind her. A pair of guards moved into the room to gather up the body and take it away, but they were halted by a wave of Kamana's hand. With another motion of her finger, she ordered them out, following close behind and locking the door behind her. As she looked through the grimy window in the door, she smirked, knowing that after eliminating of Japan's most wanted fugitives, she would surely regain some of her former honor and respect. Noriko Nakagawa however, was not so lucky. Her body was destined to hang there until the flesh around her wrists was eaten away to such an extent that her hands would no longer be able to be held within the manacles. Her final thought, right before the bullet ripped through her brain, was a silent apology to Hara, Yuji, Akari, and above all else, Shuya Nanahara.

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It had been difficult to find a quality apartment, but with help from Noriko, and some financial support from Abe, Yuji Naka, Hara Kazuko, and Akari Mitsuda all shared a large, studio apartment in downtown Los Angeles. It was there that the three fugitives, each one with fierce memories of horror and death burned into their minds, spent their nights. Groceries were delivered, anything they needed was sent in by an aid to the resistance, and thus the trio rarely had any reason to venture beyond the safety of their new home. However, all of the security in the world wasn't enough to stop what plans Kamana had already set into motion. Within an hour of Noriko's confession, an elite force of soldiers had formed ranks outside their building, waiting for the order to invade. Kamana's voice crackled over the leader's headset, and as he paused to listen, she gave the command to begin the operation.

Upstairs, Hara and Yuji sat together on the couch, a blanket draped across both of their laps as they watched a televised version of _Romeo & Juliet_ play over their big screen TV. Hara's head rested on Yuji's shoulder, a happy sigh pushing past her lips every so often, usually followed by a gentle kiss to his neck. Although he didn't show it, Yuji was the happiest he had been in a very long time, almost as though the horrors of two editions of the Program had been swept away. His hand rested on Hara's exposed stomach beneath the blanket, rubbing in gentle circles as he returned Hara's kisses in a manner so sweet that it almost didn't suit his intense masculinity.

A week prior, Hara had noticed a change in her cycle, and at first, she thought nothing of it. After all, if it were possible to accurately predict when a girl's period was going to go into effect, drug companies would be out of a job. However, after a few days had passed, Hara grew suspicious and concerned. Being the responsible girl that she was, she added a pregnancy test to the list of groceries being ordered to the apartment. Two minutes after peeing on the stick, Hara found herself with a blue cross and a bun in the oven. She mulled it over in her head, worried about what Yuji might think if he found out, but there would eventually be no way she could possibly hide what was growing inside of her. So she came forward with the good news and Yuji was overjoyed, to say the least. He was going to be a father and Hara, a mother. He cared little about the possible expenses, and his only thoughts were of Hara, and how soon, he would ask her to be his bride.

While the other two remained together on the lower level, Akari sat at her computer, typing away at a memoir she had started writing on the first day that she, Hara, and Yuji had set foot on American soil. Certainly, it was ambitious for a nineteen year old girl to even consider writing a biography of her life, but given everything she had been through, it almost seemed like it was her duty to write it. Besides, there was little else she could do, given how little the group left the apartment. Her only other activities included: watching soap operas with Hara, listening to a set of "How to Speak English: Japanese Edition" tapes that Yuji bought for the three of them to learn together, and of course, she could always tease the perverted old man in the building across from hers. He had a telescope and kept it pointed into their apartment on a constant basis, specifically on Akari's room. So rather than find some way to force the man to stop, Akari would tease him, occasionally flashing her breasts. She didn't care what some old man did to get his rocks off, and she didn't care if he saw her body. An entire nation had seen her naked on national television. One, lonely, old man was hardly going to make her uncomfortable.

There was a buzz over the intercom, indicating the presence of an outsider requesting access to their home. Akari acknowledged the noise, but she wasn't going to move from her seat just to ring someone into the building. She was right in her groove of typing and the keys were becoming little more than a blur to her. If she stopped, she'd lose all of her momentum and she would have to start the whole process over again. Besides, the other two were downstairs while she was one level above them. There was no reason for her to waste time and energy when both Hara and Yuji were closer to the door than she. Hating Akari a little bit for disturbing her peace, Hara cast aside the covering and shuffled over to the door in her bunny slipper, applying her finger to the button and requesting identification. The man outside identified himself as a UPS delivery man with a package for them, something not at all uncommon. Hara rang him in without giving it a second thought, and then she returned to her seat beside Yuji.

After a ten minute gap, a lot longer than it normally took a delivery guy to get to their floor and apartment, there came a knock on the door, and Hara, once again, rose from her seat to answer it. She didn't even bother looking through the peephole to see the delivery guy before she opened the door. After all, deliveries were very common to them, as Abe was always sending new things to the trio. Smiling as always as the door creaked open, Hara didn't even have time to register the gun in the man's hand before he fired twice into her abdomen. She felt the sharp twinge of pain and looked down to find two darts lodged through her shirt, in the flesh below her neck. Turning slowly, she looked at Yuji with a pleading look, his eyes still transfixed on the television.

"Yuji…" she rasped as she pulled the darts out of her body and showed them to him, "help…"

In the short time that all of this had occurred, the delivery guy, really a soldier sent by the Japanese government, grabbed Hara around the waist and yanked her bodily out of the apartment. Yuji heard her cry for help, and turned just in time to see his girlfriend go flying out of the apartment before five armed men stormed inside. He rolled off the couch and ducked behind and upholstered chair just as a barrage of tranquilizer darts turned the couch into a pin cushion. The soldiers rushed forward, looking for a quick and painless end to the operation. Yuji maneuvered around the chair as more shots were fired, but there was very little he could do to avoid them. He was trapped, pinned down by whoever these people were, and they had already captured Hara. He raised his hands as a sign of defeat, essentially begging for mercy, as a soldier to his left raised his gun to fire. That soldier never got the chance, as the left side of his head exploded through the right side of his head with a spectacular show of blood and gore.

"Yuji!" Akari called from the upper level, "Catch!"

Akari tossed a weapon over the railing, a pump action shotgun with plenty of ammo to spare. Yuji caught it, pumped it, and fired a blast into the closest soldier, all with one hand. The fight was on and suddenly, it wasn't so one-sided in favor of the imposing military. High above, Akari shoved her bed up against the entryway from the stairs, barricading herself in from any possible attack before raining down a volley of bullets from the plethora of handguns she kept tucked away in her closet. Soldiers were dropping like flies, somehow unable to bring down a pair of untrained fugitives. Yuji's shotgun kept them ducking for cover, unable to get a good shot in, while Akari's far more accurate pistols were breaking limbs and shattering skulls from up above. Half a dozen men lay crumpled across the apartment floor as another dozen filtered in, standing off against Yuji and Akari. Akari stared down as the soldiers split up, making a pathway for a demon she knew all too well. She roared and prepared to pull the trigger when Kamana raised her hand, issuing a ceasefire.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Mitsuda," Kamana spoke clearly without even the slightest hint of wavering in her voice, "you see…we have Miss Kazuko. And if you kill me, who will give the order to keep her unharmed?"

"You bitch!" Yuji cursed at his former teacher, "If you hurt her, I swear to God I'll kill you."

"Temper, Yuji. As long as you do not force me to do something rash, then Miss Kazuko will be just fine. You and Miss Mitsuda have been our main targets all along. You see Yuji, the government doesn't take kindly to having the Program disrupted, specifically, by having not just one, but two students escape. Hara won fair and square. She had no idea what you were planning. That's an awful way to treat your girlfriend, letting her think you to be dead. Anyway, Hara has no enemies in the Japanese government. You two are the ones we want, and if you cooperate, Hara will come out of this unharmed."

Yuji shook with a mixture of rage and anxiety, thoughts of all the unspeakable acts they could do to Hara, just to keep him in line, racing through his head. Akari felt a bond of sisterhood with Hara, a bond that could only be formed when two girls have gone through such a traumatic experience together. She knew how close Yuji and Hara were, but she couldn't allow either of them to be captured, lest the entire resistance movement be rendered moot. She was about to yell out to Yuji for him not to listen to Kamana, when she felt the prick of a dart in the side of her neck. One of the soldiers had taken their moment of distraction to aim and fire upon the girl, catching her completely defenseless. She gasped and slumped against the railing, toppling over the edge. With the way she was falling, a drop from that height could snap her neck, and Yuji knew this. Abandoning his defensive position, he lunged forward, catching the girl as she slowly lost consciousness. He didn't even have time to put her down when three more darts injected themselves into his arm. Yuji collapsed, still holding Akari in his arms, as the soldiers moved in to collect their spoils.

"We have them," said Kamana, already on her cell phone and talking to a superior, "all three. The game is set to commence in just a few days. We only have one last loose end to tie up before we can begin to set our plan in motion."

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As he sat in his office, sorting through the pile of midterm tests he had yet to grade, Professor Abe Babigee was suddenly interrupted as his door burst open an a bullet was plugged into his right shoulder. He let out a scream of intense pain that he hadn't felt in a long time as the blood sprayed from his arm and coated the tests in a red glaze. Kamana entered the room and fired three more shots, one into his other arm, and one into each of his legs, just to ensure that he didn't try anything like the previous trio had. With pain and adrenaline coursing through his body, Abe's eyes bolted wide open as he looked upon the face of an evil from his past. He recognized her immediately. It was hard to forget the face of someone who had forced him to murder and kill people he didn't even know. He slumped back in his chair, arms and legs too aggrieved to move into a more suitable position as Kamana approached.

"When I broke you out of prison, Mr. Babigee, I never in a million years would have dreamed that you would rise up and go to the aid of Shuya Nanahara and his pathetic resistance movement."

"What can I say Kaymanek," he choked out, "I don't like you."

"First of all, Kaymanek is not my real name. It's Kamana. It always has been, and it always will be. Second, when you got this job as a professor, a professor of psychology no less, did you really think you managed that little feat all on your own? Surely you can't believe that a convicted felon would even be considered to teach the impressionable young minds of American youths. No, we did that. We needed you in this position of power, Mr. Babigee."

"What the hell are you talking about? I graduated, and I got this job on my own merits."

"You can tell yourself that all you like, Mr. Babigee. Your delusional words are not going to make it true. Anyway, the reason I've come here today, and shot you, is because we have, in our possession, Akari Mitsuda and Yuji Naka."

"No! How did you find them? How the fuck did you find them?"

"Well, you can thank Miss Nakagawa for that. She told me everything I wanted to know. She's dead now of course. And you will be too, soon enough."

"Leave those kids alone…they deserve a chance…to survive…"

"They will. They will have a chance. You see, Akari and Yuji are going to play a game, one that they are all too familiar with. This is why I've come you specifically, Mr. Babigee. You see, I've learned that your psychology class is scheduled to go on a little trip tomorrow. That's the perfect opportunity for what we want."

"My…class? No…not them…you can't. You won't get away with it."

"Oh Mr. Babigee," Kamana laughed like a schoolgirl, "what makes you say that? The Japanese government is willing to pay whatever is required, as long as we can get a foothold in this country. Your class will be the first wave. You should be proud Mr. Babigee. You're going to die for a very noble cause."

Before he could utter a response, Kamana's pistol fired twice into his skull, blowing the professor backwards, dead in his chair. She smiled, content with the knowledge that in the course of one night, she had crippled the resistance. Shuya Nanahara's lover was dead, as was his greatest ally, and the three fugitives he had aided and helped to escape were now in custody once again. Before leaving the office, she rummaged through Professor Babigee's desk and pulled out his class list, going over it once before stuffing it into her pocket. The two soldiers that had accompanied her removed the body and tidied up the room to hide any evidence of foul play. The next day, everything Kamana had worked for would come to pass, and she needed her rest to prepare.


	2. The Chosen Class

While aiming the handheld video recorder into his face, Chris Cho (Student 9) gave a friendly smile and a wave. He flipped the device around and replayed the video of what he'd just done, wanting everything to be perfect. Sitting in the cramped leather seat of the tightly packed school bus, Chris was more excited than he'd ever been thus far in his life. He'd never been allowed to go on a class trip before, as his parents rarely saw the use in him missing a day of classes just to go somewhere with the slightest hint of a learning environment. At college, he finally had some semblance of freedom, despite the fact that his parents continued to watch over him and his studies like a pair of hawks. This was the first time he had ever gotten to do something, anything, that could be considered fun. Professor Babigee had arranged for the class to participate in a special experiment, and although he hadn't given many details, it seemed like a great opportunity for his first sojourn into his independence. The bus's engine started up and the wheels began to turn, heading off down the road. Turning the camera around once more and holding it focused on himself, Chris began to film, high quality images flashing across the screen opposite him.

"This is the Chris Cho Show, starring me, Chris Cho, and my lovely co-host Madison…um…hey, what's your last name?"

Madeline Swanson (Student 41) starred Chris down, her eyes a cold and black abyss from which no light or hope could be found. She showed no visible sign of anger or building rage, her face almost perfectly emotionless aside from a slight alteration in the slope of her eyebrows as they slanted over her eyes. Madeline's hand raised, the palm covering the lens of Chris's camera and the fingers gripping the metal before forcing it downward. She wrenched the camera free from Chris's hand, finding little resistance from the younger boy as she began to fiddle around with the buttons. Chris grabbed for the device, but Madeline's free hand pressed into his cheek, holding him at bay as she worked on the camera. She rewound the video and deleted it in its entirety, leaving Chris with a blank slate, once again. Finished with what she'd been trying to accomplish, she tossed the camera back at the Asian boy, her hand still gripping the side of his face. Still keeping the same stern and lifeless expression on her face, she squeezed, her fingernails digging slightly into Chris's cheek.

"Point that camera at me again, and I'll break it in half and shove it up your ass. Do I make myself clear?"

He nodded and she released him with a little more force than necessary, before returning her gaze outside, watching as the bus weaved through streets and roads before reaching the highway. Chris hit the play button and checked his camera, letting out a dejected sigh as he found his video erased. Fortunately, not much was lost, and as he re-recorded his intro, the camera's view panned over the rest of the class, pausing on the athletic trio seated at the back of the bus. Watching through the viewfinder, Chris couldn't hear their conversation, but he could see the three boys talking about something very intently. The smallest one, Russell Anderson (Student 2), made a passing motion with his arm, and the largest one, Tyrone Cisneros (Student 10), made a motion to catch the imaginary ball. The third boy, Andre Durant (Student 16), then threw his fist into the air and let out a loud enough victory yell to be audible in the video, which caused nearly the entire bus to turn and stare in confusion as to what was going on. With everyone staring at him, Andre seemed to realize that he wasn't alone on the bus, and he slumped into his seat, uncharacteristically embarrassed. Two seats in front of Chris, Robert Randal (Student 28), muttered something unkind and tasteless about the boy and slouched forward to attempt sleep.

After a slight turn to the right, Chris's camera zoomed in on a couple a few seats in front of the jocks, sucking on each others necks like a pair of starving vampires. Meghan Amana (Student 1) had on a pair of cat ears and was actively purring as Jason Vanders (Student 44) moved his hands to the sides of her face and slipped his tongue into her mouth. It was almost their one year anniversary, only two days away, and after having made a pledge to remain chaste until that date, both members of the couple were starting to get a little bit antsy in anticipation. Jason's hands slid down his girlfriend's back, giving her ass a squeeze when she noticed the camera recording them a little too intently. With a giggle, Meghan whispered into her boyfriend's ear and he turned to shoo Chris away so they could have some much needed privacy. As Chris turned his camera, continuing the tour of his class, Jason let out a low howl, his hands sliding up his girlfriend's back to caress her spine.

Seated across the aisle from Jason and Meghan sat Emily Jenson (Student 20) Sera Degaia (Student 13), idly chatting about tails or something of the sort. Chris zoomed in as Sera lifted her shirt, just enough to reveal a patch of what looked like off-colored skin. Chris gagged at the sight of whatever it was, but Emily seemed excited, her face lighting up as though she were a small child opening presents on Christmas morning. In front of those two girls sat Dhaval Shakram (Student 38), hunched over and playing his X-Wave. The boy sat by himself, as Chris had noticed him do often in the past, although this time it didn't seem to be by choice. Dhaval was a large guy, and there was barely enough room in the seat for him to fit his own body, let alone the body of someone else. Chris could hear the sounds of his handheld as he played, the all too familiar sound of the Final Fantasy victory theme playing through the miniature speakers every minute or so. He almost wanted to go over and see for himself which edition was being played, but Chris didn't exactly feel comfortable intruding upon Dhaval's peace and quiet. There was a tap on his shoulder and his turned around to find himself face-to-face with Katherine Dias (Student 15) and Heather Smith (Student 40).

"Hi," yelled Heather as she pulled the camera right into her face and planted a kiss on the lens, "my name is Heather. I'm 5'6", blonde, 133 pounds, and I'm single."

"And I'm here best friend, Katherine. I'm 5'4", a brunette, and I'm 115 pounds. If any of you boys out there wanna get to know me better, my phone number is 555-YOU-WISH!"

Heather pushed Chris back as she and Katherine fell into a fit of giggles in their seat. Chris rolled his eyes, using his sleeve to wipe the lens where Heather had pressed her lips as Madeline clicked her tongue in disapproval of their actions. Chris had refocused the picture and changed his view from the back of the bus to the front, when he felt a wet tongue licking at his hand. Letting out a rather feminine shriek, he jumped before realizing that is was just the dog of the girl across from him. Shannon Lynam (Student 24) gripped her dog's collar, pulling him away from Chris as she stroked her hand through his fur. She apologized to the boy, not exactly knowing who it was, as it was very hard to match a voice to a person when all she had to go on was a scream. She looked towards the window, her eyes hidden behind thick sunglasses, and wondered as she did on every class trip in her life, if her classmates knew just how lucky they were to be able to see the scenery outside. So many of them took for granted the blue sky or the trees and the grass, they took for granted everything Shannon had always tried to dream of seeing. It had become commonplace for Shannon to get depressed on any sort of trip, but the person sharing her seat, Carmen Valdez (Student 43), was sharing that depression for the first time in her life. Enrico Sanchez (Student 32) kept staring at her from his seat at the front of the bus, and this only made her rub the bulge in her stomach even more uneasily. Looking back in a desperate attempt to find some support, her eyes find those of Alex Rawley (Student 29). The two stared at one another for some time before Alex shot Carmen a dirty look and went back to reading whatever novel he had brought along for the trip.

In the meanwhile, Chris had fixed his camera and was now aiming the sight directly downward, into the low, V-cut shirt of the unsuspecting Danielle Depardieu (Student 14). He knew it was the wrong thing to do, but he couldn't help himself. He was, above all else, a man, and DD always seemed content with showing off her double Ds. It wasn't until Shawanda James (Student 19), sitting next to Danielle, indicated Chris's presence that he pulled back and played innocent to his own actions. He was just thankful that Madeline was too preoccupied, with whatever she seemed to find so fascinating out the window, to rat him out. While Shawanda and Danielle both had their heads turned, Kyle Scotsky (Student 36) looked back and stared at the buxom beauty's cleavage, licking his lips at the enticing sight. As the girls turned back, he gave Danielle a very perverted grin and a wink, which, in turn, netted him a hard smack across the face. Cynthia Rose (Student 31), laughed at the boy's misfortune, having dealt with many perverts like him in her own life, and it felt good to see one of them get what he deserved for his actions. The girl sharing her seat, Kimmy Marcelo (Student 25), did not share her sentiments, and gave Cynthia a shove into the aisle when the other girl attempted to involve her in the situation.

Having avoided the sting of Danielle's palm, Chris continued on his sweep of the bus, getting a shot of Antwon Banks (Student 5) in a sad attempt to court Serena Jacobs (Student 18), followed by a shot of Magdalena Santaliz (Student 33) and Inéz Santiago (Student 34) chatting to each other in Spanish. Vincent Law (Student 22) and Kyra Cross (Student 11) sat side by side, neither one paying the other the slightest bit of attention as they both read through different novels from the same series. Julio César Chavez (Student 8) was having a spirited debate with Meli Atalie (Student 4) over the merits of peaceful protests, which he found to be pointless and pathetic attempts to achieve goals without fear of losing ones life. She countered that only a fool would risk his life for a goal when peace would work just as well. It was clear that neither student was going to accept the other's point of view, but neither one of them wanted to show weakness by backing down. Across from them, Chris watched as Terrance Simmons (Student 39) covered his ears, seemingly in pain as Sean Julius (Student 21) attempted to sing along with whatever rap song he was playing on his iPod. Towards the front of the bus, near the door, Jim Darcin (Student 12) thumbed through the latest edition of X-Men in a vain attempt to ignore Michael Aston (Student 3) and all of his inane conversation about how large his house was, and how many cars he had. Behind those two, Erin Selmy (Student 37) kept edging closer to Jeff Sarge (Student 35), in such a way that their shoulders were pressed together, although Jeff didn't seem to mind her violation of his personal space.

Chris's tour ended, finally, as he focused the shot on the very front of the bus, at the two seats directly behind the driver. John Carlton (Student 7) sat quietly in his sit, edged out into the aisle due to the intense shyness and anxiety he was feeling. Wei-Lun Tseng (Student 42), the girl he had developed a crush on, was sitting right beside him, and he didn't even have to courage to speak to her, let alone, sit in such a manner that he might touch her. Chris stared in envy at the boy, angered by the way he sat, considering John unworthy to be within Wei-Lun's company. He cared deeply for the girl, her sweet and gentle kindness unlike anything he had ever experienced before in his entire life. She had taken him under her wing and helped him to become more independent of his parents, and he had fallen in love with everything about her. Even now, he could see her smiling and chatting happily with the replacement professor, Miss Kamana, a luxury most students wouldn't dream of, rather letting such a person remain alone and left to their own devices. Miss Kamana seemed happy, her mouth forming a jovial smile as she laughed at one of Wei-Lun's stories. Earlier, when she had announced that Professor Babigee was suffering from a splitting headache, Chris had worried that the trip would be cancelled, but Miss Kamana was there to take over and keep everything on track. She really was a very nice professor, quite polite and eloquent. Professor Babigee was a fun guy to have teach the class, but Chris certainly wouldn't mind Miss Kamana taking over every once in a while.

Outside the bus's window, a black van roared by, dangerously close to the side of the transport, catching the attention of Rachel Burgenson (Student 6) as she stared out at the near-empty highway. She thought of commenting about it to someone, but she didn't know anyone in the class well enough to really start a dialogue. The van was soon out of her field of vision, speeding off down the highway, or so she thought. She didn't expect the vehicle to swerve in front of the bus and stop sideways, forcing the driver to apply the brakes in such a manner that every person aboard was knocked off balance. The driver slammed his palm down against the bus's horn, cursing and swearing every blasphemous word he could think of at the van as the side door opened and several armed men poured out. He didn't even have time for shock as a bullet ripped through the back of his head, fired by the pistol in Kamana's hand. Shannon's dog barked at the gunshot, but another bullet was enough to silence him for good.

It took a few seconds for the class to comprehend the fact that their professor had just shot a man, but once that realization occurred, chaos erupted within the confines of the bus. Nick Rhineheart (Student 30) wasted no time in leaping into action as he rushed from the back of the bus, charging at Kamana without fear of his own death. He refused to allow whatever she had in mind come to pass, and he refused to let her harm anyone else onboard the bus. As other students clambered back, trying to avoid the gun's aim, Nick let out a loud bellow, just before Kamana pulled out a new gun and fired two darts into his chest. Nick slumped over, collapsing on top of John and pinning him down as Kamana firing a dart into his neck, and then the neck of Wei-Lun. The men from the van pounded on the bus's door, and Kamana obligingly opened it for them, four soldiers rushing aboard and firing tranquilizer darts and anyone who moved. Kiko Hakashi (Student 17) saw what was happening and in the back of her mind, a slight memory surfaced that brought a look of utter terror to her face. She bolted backward, jumping over the bodies of her classmates that had already fallen, thinking only of escape as a soldier took aim right at the center of her back. He fired, and yet the dart didn't connect, instead having plunged itself into the stomach of Herman Lee (Student 23) as he dove into its path in order to protect Kiko. His effort had been useless, as a second dart quickly followed up on its duty, striking Kiko and knocking her out as well.

Within two minutes, the entire class had been neutralized, and Kamana looked out over the rows of slumbering American students with that same smile she had on her face earlier. She patted Wei-Lun gently on the head as the soldiers removed themselves from the bus, taking the corpse of the middle-aged bus driver with them. Kamana positioned herself in the driver's seat, blood soaking the seat of her pants as she sat in the very place where a man had died only a short while before, and she looked back at the class once more in the rear view mirror. She started the engine up again and the bus began to roll down the road, no longer following its intended route and instead following the van as it took twists and turns that eventually led to a small, secluded dock. Kamana disembarked at the dock and was greeted by a large group of soldiers and several officials of the Japanese government.

"It's good to be back," she said, the smile still plastered across her face, "I can only hope that there will be no escape this time."


	3. Exodus

With a groan, Nick Rhineheart awoke, his head pounding with what seemed to be a battalion of jackhammers pounding away inside his skull. His ears continued to ring with the sound of those two gunshots from the bus which were the last, clear memories he had before everything went black. He coughed a few times, pressing two fingers hard into his temples in an attempt to balance out the pressure and the pain he was feeling. That method didn't seem to work, and Nick's vision was starting to become clearer, light trickling into his eyes and only making the throbbing pain even more unbearable. One of his arms rose, crossing his face to shield his sensitive retinas from whatever brightness it was that felt the need to attack him. He had to wonder why it was so bright, given the fact that they had been driving during the late afternoon. Certainly he hadn't passed out long enough for it to be morning, had he? Pondering this only made the pain increase and Nick groaned once more, trying to figure out what was going on. Bits and pieces of his memory were still there, but the majority was still a massive blank. He could remember rushing at someone, and he could remember being shot with something, but he was still alive now, wasn't he? The light couldn't possibly be heaven, could it?

His hands moved down to lift his shirt in an attempt to check for the wounds, only to find a much different outfit than the one he had been wearing when he'd fallen prey to unconsciousness. A beige jacket hung from his shoulders with a button down white dress shirt underneath and a beige tie wrapped around his neck. Realizing for the first time that he was seated at a desk, he slid sideways from the seat to find himself wearing a matching pair of beige pants and a leather belt keeping them bound tightly to his waist. To complete the outfit, his feet were now constrained within a pair of brown leather dress shoes and black socks. The whole situation was so bizarre, and that tie was probably cutting off circulation of his head. That was probably why the headache wouldn't go away. Nick's fingers curled around the tie and started tugging at it, trying to loosen the serpentine constriction, only to find a second item around his neck. As his fingers graced the metallic surface, a hand closed around his arm and yanked it away.

Erin Selmy, seated beside Nick, was shivering uncontrollably, the constant vibrations passing from her body to Nick's by way of his arm. Her outfit had changed in a very similar manner to his, the jeans and t-shirt she'd boarded the bus in having been replaced with a blouse, jacket, beige skirt, along with an ascot and a similar metal device that Nick could only describe as a collar. Erin seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and she was clearly in hysterics, but Nick was far too preoccupied to concern himself with her. Across the room that he now occupied, his classmates were all slowly awakening from their drug-induced slumber. To his other side, he found it fascinating that Sean Julius was more concerned with whatever had happened to his iPod than with the fact that he was now in a strange classroom after some kind of double cross by their professor. A quick check of all those who were conscious revealed that there was not a single electronic gadget among them. There wasn't even something as common as a cell phone available to even one member of the class. The situation was getting stranger and stranger by the minute, and the only person in the entire room that seemed to be remaining calm was Herman Lee, who seemed to be intent on fingering his collar and running his fingernails over each indentation and groove in the metal.

Seated behind the wooden teacher's desk at the front of the class, Hara Kazuko sat up and groaned. She too was already suffering from a headache brought on by a combination of the brightness around her and the effect of the tranquilizer still lingering in her body. Squinting, she let the light filter through her lashes as she beheld her surroundings through the slits that were her eyes. The beige uniforms and the rows of students sitting there, each fitted with a metal collar, was a complete déjà vu experience for Hara. Hara's throat felt tight, that feeling of entrapment returning to her in full force as her hands tried to move to examine her own neck for a collar, but she was stuck fast. Looking down, she could see that both of her wrists were shackled to the chair she now occupied, and her ankles were bound to the chair's legs, preventing movement of any kind. Hara shivered as she strained herself, desperately trying to free herself from the confines of the chair. An acute panic attack overwhelmed her for a few moments, memories of every single horror she had witnessed flooding back into her mind. She saw Ino Hazakai, riddled with bullets and bleeding outward onto her own uniform as Sefi Rasu, fired an empty shot at her. She saw Shiro Amasaki, begging for her to stay with him, only to receive a bullet through his head from Gorasa Satabala. The faces of her friends, whom she hadn't even gotten to see in their final moments, flashed across her mind as synapses fired and came to a halt, the panic over as randomly as it had begun.

From a central position at the head of the class, Hara was able to look out and observe each and every other person in the room with little difficulty. Some of the kids, although most of them could hardly be classified as kids in any sense of the word, were still asleep, sprawled out across their desks as those who were just rising from their attack. There were boys and girls from a wide variety of races and walks of life, a fact that surprised Hara, as her only experience with this sort of ordeal had been with an all-Japanese, high school class. A quick scan of the other beings drew her attention almost immediately to the center of the class, at a pair of desks separated from the others. At the first, with long, black hair draped over the front of her desk in a style reminiscent of Samara from that old horror movie, _Ringu_, sat Akari Mitsuda (Student 26). She wore a uniform just like all the others, a replica of those worn by her former class. Had she not told Hara the disturbing tale of her encounter with Gorasa, Hara might've thought it to be the exact outfit she had worn the last time she was put into a classroom like this. In the second desk, beside Akari, Yuji Naka (Student 27) was already awake and starting to get his bearings. He too, was strapped into his seat, and so was Akari, although none of the other, unfamiliar faces shared the same predicament.

"Yuji!" she whispered as loud as she could, hoping her words could reach his ears.

"Hara!" he responded, his face brightening as he hadn't noticed her prior to her exclamation, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. My head hurts like a bitch, and I my back's a bit sore, but otherwise, I'm just fine."

"Ugh," Akari groaned, chiming into the conversation, "I hate waking up like this. Dammit…how did we let this happen?"

"I don't know. They found us, I don't know how, but they did it. Dammit, I can't even move my fucking arms. Hara…I'm so sorry I let them get you. I failed you."

"Yuji…we…we're okay for now. We escaped once before…we can do it again."

"Hey," Akari piped up again, "either of you know who the newbs are? Most of these kids look like they've got no idea what's going on."

"Cut 'em some slack Akari, you didn't know either, your first time. I gotta say…I never thought the Dictator would be so bold as to go after Americans for the Program."

Kiko Hakashi, who was seated in the row behind Akari, had been listening to their conversation intently, knowing that she was, more than likely, the only person in the room capable of understanding their speech and that they probably didn't expect her to understand them. Her eyes went wide and she bolted out of her seat, rushing forward, down the aisle, to Yuji's side. Her fingernails dug into his arm beneath the uniform jacket he now wore, an expression of both terror and anguish jumbled into a mess across her face. She stammered several times, unable to say what she needed to say, but also unable to restrain herself from the sudden dread that had enveloped her psyche. Combined with this anxiety and stuttering, Kiko hadn't spoken in her native tongue in many years, and hence, she was a bit rusty when it came to forming the words she needed to say. Eventually, she managed to cry out only two words, directed not only at Yuji, but at the two girls as well.

"The Program?!"

As if on cue, the classroom door swung open and slammed into the wall before ricocheting back with a violent reverberation. All eyes were drawn to the open portal, a single, familiar face entering the room and radiating her presence to the 45 bodies that dwelled within. Kamana stepped to the front of the class, scornfully looking upon Kiko before raising a solitary finger and directing the girl back to her assigned seat. Having repaired the minor damage to her perfect classroom, Kamana hopped onto her desk, obscuring Hara from view entirely. The entire class was silent, simply waiting for whatever their professor had to tell them, as the majority of the students were completely oblivious to the mere premise of what Kamana had in store for them. Pausing for a very brief moment, she dug into her pocket to find a tube of lipstick, delicately reapplying it to accentuate her porcelain skin with lips of scarlet. Returning the tube to its home in her blouse, she stretched and took an opportunity to gaze out over the class, making a note of all the faces of those she would soon be sending off to die.

"Professor Babigee is dead," she began to speak, gasps and looks of shock forming throughout the group of students, "I shot him last night and then took on the guise of a temporary replacement in order to gain access to all of you."

She paused for a second, looking at Akari and Yuji, directing in front of her, and reached backwards, grabbing a pile of folders placed right in front of Hara. Kamana thumbed through the folders, skimming what was written within each one before dragging her finger slowly over a page, reading carefully, line by line, what was written. Her head raised, looking from the folder, to the face of the girl whose picture was clipped to it. It was Kiko Hakashi, the girl she had intimidated and dismissed earlier, with such ease. Now, she would need the girl's aide if she was to get this necessary introduction over with in a decent amount of time.

"Kiko Hakashi," she spoke clearly, and precisely, "these two students are Japanese, and it is my understanding that you speak Japanese. Is this correct?"

"Y-Yes. I know how to speak Japanese…I'm just a bit r…"

"I don't need any further explanation. All I need you to do for me right now is to translate what I'm saying to the class, into Japanese, because I have no idea just how much English those two understand."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Your job is not to ask questions, my dear. Your job for now is to translate. Now do so."

"But…"

"Professor Babigee is dead," Kamana began once more, cutting Kiko off and waiting for her to translate before continuing, "I killed him last night to gain control of this class. The reason I needed to gain control of this class is because you have been chosen to play a game. This is a game that originated in my home country of Japan, and it is called the Program. Certainly you've heard of it before Kiko."

"Yes," she whimpered, having reached a pause in the conversation, "I know of the Program…"

"For those of you who are unfamiliar with the details of the Program, the premise is quite simple. A class of students is chosen, and that class must fight each other until only one person is left alive. That's the simplest way I can put it."

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Robert Randal said defiantly, "I ain't playin' any stupid fucking Jap game. I'm an American citizen. I know my rights, you whore."

"Mister…" Kamana thumbed through the folders again as she spoke, "Randal, is it? If you ever refer to me or anything related to my home country with the words 'fucking Jap' again, I will blow your fucking head off."

"Yeah right."

"Try me," she stated as she withdrew a high caliber revolver from her waistband and pointed it at Robert's head. The boy, like the coward he truly was, backed down.

"To continue," she said, returning the gun, like her lipstick, to its home, "your class will be competing in the Program. It will be a first…well…technically a second for your country. It will, like my country's version, be televised on several channels, so try to do your best to make your performances entertaining for the viewers at home."

"Hell no!" Shawanda James spoke up this time, "I ain't going on TV and I ain't fightin' nobody."

"Miss…" Kamana read through the folders again, this time taking particular care to read each one carefully enough to know names, "James. Did Mister Randal's outburst teach you nothing? I am the one in control here, and your incessant blabbering will get you nowhere with me. So sit down and shut your mouth, if that's at all possible."

"I…" Shawanda started to speak, but she was dumbfounded, and, like Robert before her, followed Kamana's instructions.

"Good girl. Now, before we go any further, I believe several introductions are in order. First, my name is Invisa Kamana. This is the third Program I have overseen. You may have also noticed the three extra students in your class. The girl at the desk behind me is Hara Kazuko, who has won the Program once before, as has Yuji Naka, the boy at the front of the room. The other is Akari Mitsuda. She and Mr. Naka cheated their way out of the previous Program…and their escape ruined my reputation."

"Good."

"What was that, Mister Naka? Did you say something?"

"I said, 'Good.' I'm glad that what I did fucked you up, Kamana. You deserve it you piece of shit."

"Defiant as always, Mr. Naka. I've gotta hand it to you, you're very consistent. Nevertheless, what you and Miss Mitsuda did, greatly reduced not only my credibility, but also my dignity and my power within the Japanese government. I shall enjoy watching the two of you suffer to your last breaths."

"Whatever gets you wet at night, Kamana. I'd feel a lot more intimidated if you weren't talking to me while holding my girlfriend hostage."

"Oh of course," Kamana laughed, "Miss Kazuko. I should've known you still concerned yourself more with her safety than with your own. Well, don't worry. Hara will be staying right here, in this school, with me, until the end of the game. She won't be playing the game at all. The collar around her neck will be gone in just a few minutes."

"What's the catch?"

"Catch? There is no catch, Mister Naka. Hara won this game fair and square once before. She isn't a part of this class, so how could she possibly be chosen randomly to play again. No, you and Miss Mitsuda are the ones who cheated, and thus, you two are the ones who will be playing."

"You're insane."

"I don't really care what you say to me, Mister Naka. We're not so different. You'll realize that before the end."

"Whatever you say, Kamana."

"Anyway," said Kamana, turning around and moving to the chalkboard behind Hara where she began to sketch a rough map, "we are on an island right now, off the coast of California. It was formerly a resort, although it's been abandoned since that time. Now, it's all for you. It's a really nice place to relax, sunbathe, and pump fifty rounds into your best friend. You'll note that the island is divided into a ten by ten grid with 100 sectors in all. We are currently in the only school on the island, in the residential half, and the school is located in sector E-8. The sectors are very important because of the collars around your necks."

She paused for a moment, amazed at how even after her third instruction of the Program, there were still people who didn't even notice the collars until she brought them up. Akari and Yuji continued to stare at her with hate in there eyes, which brought a smile to her face. She enjoyed the suffering of the people she forced to play such a horribly sinister game. She had enjoyed every second of Shiro Amasaki's torment during the last edition, and she was looking forward to watching every painful moment those two would have to experience.

"The collars are made of waterproof titanium, and are rigged with enough explosives to blast a person's head clean off of their body. Miss Mitsuda witnessed the destructive force of these collars twice if I recall. These collars will detonate if you try to tamper with them in any way. The only way to remove the collars is with a single key that I hold in my possession. That key, and that key only, will free you, as it both fits in the lock, and perfectly magnetized to remove the maglock. While we're on the subject, there are a few other things that will detonate your collar. First, if you try to escape, and you go beyond the boundaries of the map, the collar will explode. If the game goes for a full twenty-four hours without a death, all of the collars will explode. Finally, over the course of the game, I will be announcing certain sectors of the map as 'danger zones.' If you ever wander into a danger zone, or if you just happen to be caught within one, your collar will explode. Of course, the explosions won't be imminent. There is a thirty second delay with which you can do whatever you want, but really, what good is thirty seconds? Now, I've noticed a bit of skepticism in some of your faces, so, to prove what I'm saying, I'll give you a demonstration."

Kamana quickly produced a small clicker from her pocket, and pressed her finger against the only button it held. A soft beep began to echo throughout the walls of the classroom, beeping slowly at first, but speeding up at a very gradual rate. Everyone looked around, hands grabbing at their own collars in desperation as they tried to make sure that they weren't the one chosen for Kamana's demonstration. The cruel instructor simply smiled, watching the fear and insecurity as she, for the first time since sitting down, moved from her seat on the desk. Now exposed from her position behind Kamana, rivers of tears ran down Hara Kazuko's cheeks as a small, red light in the center of her collar blinked on and off in rapid succession. She tried to scream, but no sound came out, the beeps only becoming rapider with each passing second. Yuji's eyes went wide and he screamed at the top of his lungs, his wrists bleeding as he struggled to free them from the shackles that bound him in place. Everything he'd felt for the past year, everything good in his life since he escaped hell for a second time, flashed before his eyes. Every moment, from his first kiss with Hara, to the news of her pregnancy, ran through his mind, each beep signaling a new memory until they were all a blur.

"YUJI!" she screamed in terror as her gaze fell upon the snickering demon she'd once called a teacher.

"HARA!" Yuji cried back in response, the only thing he could do other than sit and watch as the beeps ended, and with an explosion, he watched as Hara's head sailed free from the rest of her body, rolling along the floor before coming to a halt at Kamana's feet. Kamana smiled, kicking the severed head back and forth, watching it roll as the blood emptied from the remnants of its neck, staining the floor in Hara's blood. Yuji's mouth hung open, forming words with no sound to accompany them. His girlfriend, the mother of his unborn child, was dead, and her head was being toyed with like a football under the cruel ministrations of his captor. Her body still sat there, at the front of the class for all to see, blood gushing down her uniform as bits of skin stood from the wound, singed by the heat of the explosion. Yuji felt himself cry, allowing tears to fall from his weary eyes for the first time in a long time. He couldn't believe that, in just that fleeting moment of Kamana's cruelty, Hara was gone. The sadistic demon had ruined so many lives, and now, she had ruined his life as well. Her earlier statements hadn't even been lies. They were just distorted versions of the truth, concocted by her twisted mind as a means of further torturing him.

"As you can see," chirped Kamana, kneeling down and lifting Hara's head by the hair, "you do not want that collar to go off on you."

The class was still rattled by what had just transpired. The majority of the class had been in disbelief about what was going on, but that image of such an innocent and pure young woman, terrified as she died, so gruesomely, right in front of her boyfriend, truly got the point across that what they were going through was real. Footsteps were heard from the hallway, passing through the still open door moments before a group of four soldiers entered the room. Each soldier pushed a cart that contained a stack of duffel bags, each one marked with a number, ranging from one, all the way to forty-four. Upon their entrance, Kamana, dropped Hara's head on top of the desk where her body still sat, lifeless. She wiped the blood from the girl off, onto her blouse, leaving a pair of streaked, red handprints.

"These bags," she spoke once more, amazed at the silence that could be attained by such a simple action as blowing off a human head, "each contain the following items. There is a map, very much like the one I have drawn on the board, and a list of every person in the class, both of which are encased in a waterproof bag with a pen. Those will come in quite handy during those announcements I mentioned earlier. Every six hours, you all get to hear my chipper little voice over loudspeakers all over this island. I'll announce the names of all who are dead, and I will announce the locations of new danger zones and the times that they go into effect."

"You must have that shit memorized by now," Akari spat, eyes trying to avoid those of Hara, forever open, "don't you, you sick bitch?"

"Heh, of course I don't Miss Mitsuda. Now, would you mind if I continued? I'm sure some of your new classmates would like to know the rules. As I was saying, you have the map, the class list, a compass for finding direction, a wristwatch that has been calibrated already to the times of the announcements and danger zones, and a three day supply of rations and water. Keep in mind that those rations won't last forever, and if you want to keep your strength up, you'll have to find more by killing to get it. The final item in your bag is a weapon. These weapons are all unique, each one different from every other one. Every one of you will receive a single weapon, so remember, if you see someone coming towards you with two instruments of death in their hands, then that means they have already killed to get at least one of those. Now, I believe that covers everything, so I'll now take any questions you happen to have."

"Hey," Herman Lee stood up, a strange glint in his eye, "is that THE Yuji Naka? The champion of 2013?"

"Very astute of you, Mister…Lee, correct? Yes, Mister Naka won his first playing of the Program by executing…six or seven of his fellow classmates, and then was selected to participate in another. He killed only one student in that edition, and was supposedly killed near the end of the game. He cheated, of course. That's why he's here now."

"Can I get his autograph?"

"Mister Lee, such trivial matters as that are a waste of my time. If you want an autograph, you can find Mister Naka on the battlefield. Any other questions?"

"W-W-Where is," Shannon Lynam shook from her seat, the only student not to have had a visual of Hara's death, but the sounds were horrifying enough, "where is my Dexter?"

"There is no one in this class by that name Miss…Lynam."

"He's not a student. He's my dog. He was on the bus with us. You remember, don't you?"

"Oh right…the dog. He's dead, dear. No pets allowed."

"B-B-But he was…he was my Seeing Eye dog. I need him! How can you expect me to do this without my dog?"

"Miss Lynam, if there's one thing the Program has taught me, it's that life isn't fair. Everyone is unbalanced. That's just how nature is. You're a weak human being, and odds are you'll die early in this game. You get no special treatment from me based on your disability."

"Where do you get off," Tyrone Cisneros yelled, slamming both fists into his desktop, "talkin' to her like that?"

"Mister Cis…neros. I will speak to you, all of you, however I wish to speak to you. If you don't like that, then it's not my problem. Anyone else?"

"My family," Danielle Depardieu piped in, "they are back in France. How can you justify this? How can you take their daughter from them? I'm not even an American citizen."

"Me neither!" added Julio César Chavez, "This is against my rights as a Venezuelan citizen!"

"Did I get the slow class?" Kamana laughed, "playing the nationality card won't work here. This class was chosen, and thus, every person in it will have to compete. It doesn't matter if you aren't a citizen. Akari and Yuji are Japanese. They're illegal immigrants to this country. Hell, Akari's best friend in her first playthrough was an Italian exchange student. He died like all the rest. You will all fight, or you will all die."

No one else seemed keen on speaking up and putting attention on themselves, which was just fine to Kamana. She erased the board and methodically wrote down the names of all forty-four students on the board in order of number. She chuckled as she wrote Yuji's name, finding it to be such a delightful coincidence that he and Akari had still been paired up, even given the strange alphabetical style Americans had to keeping class lists. She walked to the sets of bags and grabbed the first, numbered with a boldface '1.'

"You will leave in order of your assigned number, in two minutes intervals. After the last of you, Mister Vanders, leaves this building, you all have twenty minutes to flee this sector before it becomes a danger zone. Now, with that out of the way, student 1, Meghan Amana, step forward please."

Meghan, at the far left side of the class, rose from her seat slowly, eyes casting occasion glances across the room to her boyfriend, Jason Vanders. She was leaving first, and he would be leaving last, which meant that they were to be separated by every single member of the class. There was a strong chance that she would never see him again, and there was a chance that they would spend the rest of their lives in search of one another, only to find nothing. She moved to Kamana, the professor holding a duffel bag in her hand, and Meghan quickly accepted it, hefting the bag onto her shoulder. Kamana directed her to the door and Meghan went, stopping at her desk on the way out. Unzipping her bag and catching a glint of her weapon, a fire axe, she grabbed instead for the map. Tearing off a corner, she scribbled a note and dropped it on her chair just as Kamana was about to yell at her to leave. Meghan hustled out of the room and down the hallway, past several rows of guards that were watching her depart.

Kamana continued calling out names and the class began to empty, one student right after another without so much as a second look back. Russell Anderson, Tyrone Cisneros, and Andre Durant hardly seemed to care when it was their time to go, each boy rushing out of the classroom with little regard for anyone else. Following Andre, Kiko Hakashi walked up the aisle toward the front of the class, pausing momentarily beside Akari's desk and placing a hand upon that of the warrior before mouthing a simple, 'I'll wait for you and your friend.' With that, she grabbed her bag, and she was gone, footsteps ringing out as she ran from the classroom, eager to get away from the ghastly sight of the still fresh corpse at the center. Herman Lee smirked and patted Yuji's shoulder as he left, seemingly unaffected by Yuji's sadness over the death of his girlfriend. Behind Herman, Shannon Lynam took her time in making her way to the front of the room. Without her dog and without her cane, she was helpless. She couldn't even make her way from the room without a pair of soldiers grabbing her and forcing her outside. Kimmy Marcelo left the room two minutes later, without incident, and then it was Akari's turn.

With Kamana pressing a gun to her temple, two guards removed the bonds that had held Akari in place. She stood, not wanting to give Kamana any more reason to kill her than she already had, and accepted the duffel bag as it was forced into her arms. Looking around at everyone else who was still trapped in the room, she showed a single look of pity, still avoiding the sight of Hara's corpse as she left, emerging onto the field of death once again, this time with no chance of escape. Yuji's head turned as his only remaining friend disappeared, and he waited in his seat, trying to keep himself composed. Kamana placed the gun against his head and the soldiers repeated the process on him as they had done to Akari. Stepping back to their positions by the door, Kamana lowered the gun and allowed Yuji to rise to claim his bag. His head turned toward the front desk, and then looked upon her blouse and the blood that still soaked it. Hara's blood was on her hands. If it was the last thing he ever did, he was going to make her pay.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" he yelled, grabbing Kamana by the arms and slamming her back into the desk, "I'LL FUCKING RIP OUT YOUR PUSSY AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT!"

"Mister Naka," Kamana laughed, as calm as ever, "Forty-seven of my classmates couldn't kill me. What makes you think you even have a chance?"

Yuji was taken aback at the statement, his hands releasing their grip as he puzzled over her words in his mind. Did she just imply that she had been on the Program? Did she imply that she had won? His thoughts were interrupted as Kaman brought her knee up into his groin, slamming his testicles upward into his body. Yuji groaned and fell back, taking out Akari's original desk as it broke his fall. Kamana spat at him on the ground, and threw his back at him hard, the heft of the object knocking the window out of him. As he coughed, the soldiers returned to his side and dragged him from the classroom, throwing him down the hall with such force that he slid on the tiled floor. Standing up, one of the soldiers hit him with the butt of the gun, forcing him to move and vacate the school. Scowling and wiping away the remnants of tears from his cheeks, he ran from that school, whispering Hara's name over and over again in his head. He burst through the exit doors with a fear fueled adrenaline rush coursing through his body, only to find himself face-to-face with three individuals.


	4. An Alliance of Necessity

Upon her expulsion from the building, Shannon hugged the school's wall, frightened of whatever was out there. For all she knew, someone was already standing there, ready to kill her, and she would never see who it was. There was however, a certain comforting factor to knowing that the last thing she would ever see would be the face of a murderer. Two minutes passed, although she hadn't been keeping track of the time, and she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. The door opened and Kimmy stepped out, Shannon's hands springing out and grabbing the girl by her wrist. Kimmy Marcelo, already a girl who did not like to be touched, screamed and slapped Shannon across the face, dislodging the girl's sunglasses and releasing her from the unwanted grip. Kimmy bolted from there, running straight into the cluster of houses she could see from the school, just wanting to get as far away as possible.

"No!" Shannon cried out, her arm outstretched in the direction of the footsteps, getting father and farther away, "don't leave me! I c-c-can't see! Please…please don't leave me alone…"

Shannon dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her already reddened cheeks, her fingers scratching and digging into the dirt in search of her sunglasses. Her hand brushed against something hard, and she grabbed at it, quickly realizing that she held a shoe, rather than what she was seeking. Her fingers made their way upward, gripping a strong and muscular calf and giving it a squeeze. The leg, from what she could feel, had no hair on it, indicating a girl, but none of the girls in her class had ever seemed all that athletic. Whoever this person was, it was most likely either a guy, or Serena Jacobs, because that girl was on more sports teams than Shannon could count. Her hands traveled higher, not even thinking about how awkward the other person was feeling, the leg and thigh both equally as toned as the calf. She felt her wrist brush against cloth, and she realized that whoever it was couldn't possibly be a guy, because whoever it was, wore a skirt. Apparently, going that high up had been a step over the line Shannon shouldn't have crossed, and she felt herself being lifted up by the throat and strangled by a firm, feminine grip.

Akari had left four minutes after Shannon, leaving the classroom into a game she had played once before. She was all but alone in the game this time, Yuji being the only person she knew or could even communicate with. She and Yuji had taken the English lessons Noriko and Abe had sent them, but neither one was all that good at learning how to speak a language they'd been all but forbidden from learning for nearly two decades of their lives. Hara had excelled in the language, of course. She had always been the smart one of the group, and she was the one who usually dealt with the deliveries to the apartment. Thinking about Hara now brought tears to her eyes, the girl having been like a sister to her, killed by Kamana for little reason other than to satisfy her sadistic tendencies. Walking down the hallway, past the lines of soldiers, she unzipped her bag to see what weapon she had received. Although interrupted by a hard hit from the butt of a rifle to her backside, Akari saw several cases of handgun ammunition before pushing her way out of the school. It was here that she'd found Shannon, scrounging about on the ground like a dog after fallen table scraps.

The girl was forward, no question about that. It would take a lot of guts to go up to a strange girl and essentially feel her up, all the way until you reach her crotch. Akari, however, was not pleased to be groped, considering her previous sordid experience with Gorasa Satabala. She grabbed the girl and choked her, lifting the smaller girl about a foot into the air and shaking her slightly. Unable to breathe, Shannon struggled, kicking against Akari's legs in pure terror, realizing just how frightening it was to be attacked by someone she couldn't even see. Akari watched her closely, the girl's eyes fixed beyond her head, and yet when she turned to see what was behind her, she found nothing. She noticed a pair of sunglasses on the ground, and Akari started to piece the puzzle together. Releasing Shannon slowly, while still keeping a grip on her arm, Akari knelt down and gathered up the tinted eyewear, brushing the dirt off before handing them over. Shannon quickly snatched the sunglasses out of her hand and breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have her eyes guarded, and to have her lungs clear once more. Whoever this girl was, Shannon was unsure as to exactly what her intentions were, but she was glad enough that her life was spared for the time being.

"_I'm sorry,"_ Akari apologized, forgetting the language barrier, _"bad memories, you know?"_

"What?" responded Shannon, confused for just a moment before coming to somewhat of an understanding, "I can't understand you. You're that girl…Akari…right?"

"_Akari. That's me. That's my name. My…my English isn't that great yet…I don't really understand what you're saying."_

"Okay, so you're Akari. I'm Shannon."

"_What? I…I don't understand you."_

"Shannon," the girl pointed at herself for emphasis, "My name is Shannon."

The knowledge of each other's names seemed to be the only information either of them would figure out given the difference in speech. What made it harder was the fact that Akari couldn't even mime what she was saying to the blind girl. The two of them stood in front of the school, Akari temporarily feeling at ease, knowing she could definitely trust the next player to emerge. There were footsteps coming from the nearby forest, shoes crashing through the fallen leaves, and Kiko Hakashi burst from the trees, out of breath. She looked up at Akari, fortunate to have had the girl remain, and then noticed her, still holding on to Shannon's arm. She didn't know the extent of Akari's English capabilities, but she knew that Shannon, along with the majority of the class, couldn't speak Japanese, and thus, whatever was going on between the two, seemed to have come to a stand still.

"_Akari,"_ she spoke in Akari's native tongue, announcing herself to the pair who couldn't possibly have missed her entrance, given the amount of noise she'd made, _"I apologize for not waiting. Herman left between us and I don't want anything to do with that boy. He stalks me."_

"_It's okay,"_ Akari replied, trying to sound calm, but with the mix of emotions flowing through her, it was a hard task to keep up, _"I found…Shannon…I…don't really understand her."_

"_Oh…uh…I can translate for you two. I'm fluent in both languages."_

"_That would be great. Tell her I'm sorry for strangling her."_

"_You did what?"_

"_Just tell her I'm sorry. Also, why are you helping me? You were gone, you didn't need to come back."_

"_I just am. I know what the Program is. My parents fled Japan so I'd never have to go through it. If you and that boy escaped…I think I'm better off teamed up with you two than I am alone."_

"_Yuji escaped. I just followed him. He went into that Program prepared. We were caught completely off guard this time. I'm sorry Kiko."_

"_But…but I…I have to live…my family…they used nearly their entire life savings to bring me to America…"_

"_I…I don't know what to say, Kiko. There's really nothing in my power that I can do here. We can't even take off the collars this time thanks to Kamana's key."_

"_I'm gonna die…aren't I? Just like that girl in there…"_

"_Hara…"_

"_Who was she?"_

"_A friend of mine…she won the Program…the one Yuji and I escaped…"_

"_And that woman…just killed her?"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_I'm so sorry…that was so horrible. Professor Kamana was so nice on the bus. How can she do something like this now? How can she just kill another human being like that?"_

"_She sentences entire classes to death. I hardly doubt she gives a damn whether the blood is on her hands or not."_

"_But…"_

It was then, that Yuji pushed his way through the school doors, two minutes having elapsed since Akari's departure. Akari stood in front of the building, her duffel bag slung over one shoulder in a scene reminiscent of their first and only meeting before his "death." The only difference was that she had more clothing on this time than that karate shirt. Standing next to her was the Japanese girl from the classroom, the one who seemed to be intent on speaking with the two of them before she was so rudely cut off by Kamana's entrance. She was quivering, her whole body shaking in fear as though she'd finally realized what he and Akari had known from the very second they'd woken up in that classroom. There was no escape, and the only way to survive was to kill anyone you could. Along with Akari and Kiko, as Kamana had called her, there was a third girl, the one who had left after being forced from the room by the soldiers. Shannon was what she'd been announced as, student twenty-four. Yuji didn't know why she remained by the school, nor did he know what had become of student twenty-five between Shannon and Akari. All he knew was that the game was on, and immediately, he vomited every bit of food in his system onto the stone steps of the school.

"_Yuji!"_ Akari cried as she ran to her friend, rubbing his back as seemingly an infinite amount of bile poured forth from his gullet, _"Yuji, stay with me!"_

"_W-Why…Why should I play? Hara is dead. She was my world Akari. She was all I had! I was going to ask her to marry me, Akari! I had the fucking ring! And now she's gone! She's gone!"_

"_Y-Yuji,"_ Akari couldn't help but stammer as she watched one of the strongest people she had ever known break down into tears, _"Y-You're all I've got left Yuji. You're the only friend I have. Everyone else is dead. If you don't play…if you die…then I'LL be all alone. As long as we stay together, we have each other. Don't you dare…fucking leave me, Yuji Naka. I'll never forgive you if you leave me."_

"_Akari,"_ Yuji spoke between sobs, _"That…that monster killed my Hara. She just killed her. Hara didn't deserve to die. She was a good person. She never killed…she never lied…she never hurt anyone. She still died. That's the fate of the Program. There are no happy endings. My girl is dead…and my baby along with her. I just…I just want to be with her…I want to keep her safe…wherever she is."_

"_Yuji,"_ Akari responded, her lip quivering as she started to tear up, _"Don't quit on me now…please…please Yuji…please…I need you…you're all I have left…"_

"_I can't go on, Akari. Hara was my life. She's gone, and now I feel no better than if I were dead. I just want the pain to go away. I just want it to go away so I can be with Hara…"_

"_She was like a sister to me, Yuji! You think you're the only one in pain! Hara would want us to stay alive! She would want us to get back at the bitch who killed her!"_

"_Hara would never think that, Akari…even Kamana. She was such a good girl…she was so wonderful…"_

"_I don't mean to interrupt,"_ said Kiko, piping up for the first time since the pair had initiated the dialogue, _"but there's only two minutes between students, and soon, another one will be coming out, and he's not exactly the friendliest of people to begin with. So I'm getting out of here, and if either of you want to stand a chance in this game, I'd suggest you come with me to find a safer place to stay. Her too."_

Kiko indicated Shannon and Akari nodded, still rubbing Yuji's back, even after he had finished vomiting. Wiping a tear from her cheek, she grabbed Yuji under the arm and yanked him to his feet, adjusting herself to handle his entire weight as he needed support, just to walk. Kiko approached Shannon and offered her a hand, gripping the other girl by the wrist to ensure that she knew someone was there for her. Shannon smiled weakly and gripped right back as Kiko started to walk, leading her along as she moved north, towards the large, looming hospital. Akari strained as she pulled Yuji along, giving him as much support as she could muster. She didn't realize it, but Yuji was walking on his own quite well, and he was, in fact, holding her up as they moved. Each one thought only of the other, both supporting each other in their time of most dire need. As they moved beyond the tree line, two minutes had passed, and Robert Randal emerged from the school, only to slip and fall in the puddle of Yuji's bile. He swore loudly, cursing several times as he wiped the disgusting substance from the seat of his pants with both hands, and then he hustled west, into the forest.


	5. Shawanda James

After leaving the school in a rush, enraged by her treatment at the hands of a so-called professor, Shawanda James remained holed up in a surprisingly nice hotel room she had come across. The bed remained in a state of imbalance, half of it neat and tidy, while the other half remained undone, the sheets ripped free from an orderly position, almost as though the housekeeping staff had been interrupted in the middle of their rounds. Her duffel bag lay open atop the bedspread, several boxes of bullets scattered across the mattress. Clutched in her left hand, she wielded her supplied weapon, a powerful Smith & Wesson .38 Chief's Special Revolver, already loaded and prepared to shoot. Part of her wanted to cry, to break down the tough and standoffish outer shell she'd encased herself within and simply cry, but she knew that she couldn't. She couldn't allow herself to be weak in a situation like this. Kids were out there and she knew they were playing. Half the class was white, and Shawanda knew that they were the ones who ended up being serial killers. It was that thought, the thought of her own impending death, which had caused her to run across the island to the hotel, never looking back.

Having found a cart stacked with luggage in the lobby, Shawanda had taken her time to drag the cart behind the hotel's front desk before she began searching through each individual bag. Livid as always, she tore through suitcase after suitcase, finding pairs of male underwear, socks, and clothing far too large for her frame to keep on. After having awakened to find herself wearing an outfit she had never seen before in her life, Shawanda was reasonably angered. She didn't even want to think about whichever pervert had undressed her, probably taking the opportunity to cop a feel or screw around with her underwear. After searching through the entire cart and finding not even a t-shirt that fit, Shawanda chucked an empty suitcase across the hotel lobby, cursing in rage at the situation.

However angry she was, she still knew that it was not a smart idea to conceal herself in such an obvious location. Noticing a set of room keys strewn across the front desk, she scooped them up and ran to the stairwell, climbing flight after flight of stairs until she reached the thirteenth and final floor of the hotel. It didn't take long to find a door that was able to be unlocked, and she ducked into the room without bothering to make sure it was safe. She felt confident that, as long as she held the key, she would be untouchable. Locking the door and securing herself within her new hideout, Shawanda finally took a moment to find out what weapon Kamana and her goons had supplied her with. Inside the duffel were four or five boxes of ammo and a gun that she knew, from the movies, to be powerful. Following the instruction booklet that came with the gun, she'd loaded six bullets into the chamber, and was prepared to fight off anyone who decided to play the game against her. She had over one hundred bullets, so unless someone decided to engage her in an old-fashioned shoot-out, she would be just fine.

"This is fuckin' bullshit. Where the hell does that bitch get off, tellin' me I gots to kill people? I ain't gonna kill nobody. That bitch can go fuck herself. Fuckin' crazy ass white people can play this, but I ain't givin' in. I ain't killin' shit."

She looked around the room and hung her head dejectedly. Normally, when she went off on a tirade like that, there were plenty of people around to listen and agree with her. There was always one person who would disagree, but Shawanda was a stubborn girl, and she refused to back down on her points, no matter how incorrect. She would keep attacking miniscule flaws in her opponents' arguments until they just gave up and stop caring. She liked those arguments. They made her feel like she had worth and they made her feel like she could actually make a difference in the world. Now though, she was all alone in an abandoned hotel, and silence enveloped everything around her. It was almost frightening to have utter quiet. She'd lived in the city all of her life, and her friends were always chatting about something. Her ears weren't prepared for such deafening silence.

"Man…this ain't fair. What'd I do to deserve this shit? I ain't a bad girl. I ain't a bad girl at all."

There was no response, which to Shawanda, was more frightening than if someone had been there in the room, just to reply to her comment. Her hand, holding the gun, was twitching, trembling as she ran everything that was going on through her head and coming out with the same conclusion. Looking down at her weapon, she contemplated death for only the briefest fraction of a second before tossing it back into the duffel bag. She wasn't going to die like that. She wasn't going to disgrace herself by taking the coward's way out. Reaching back into the bag, she pulled out some of her rations and took a bite, almost spitting it onto the floor upon discovering the taste. Sighing, she placed the food back into the bag and zipped it back up, staring out the window, onto the brightly lit landscape of the island.

The watch she'd been given read one o'clock, which meant that a good portion of the class was still waiting for their turn inside the school. Thirty students were out and about, traversing the island and maybe even killing already. Assuming the watch was accurate, the thirtieth student, Robert Randall, was just leaving the building. Of all the others on the island, Robert was the one who she feared. Whether or not she really knew the other students didn't matter, Robert was the one that was most dangerous, especially to her. Along with that fear was an intense hatred of the boy, stemming from his treatment of not only her, but also, other select students in the class.

Robert was a redneck for sure; his accent made that quite clear, and in all honesty, Shawanda had nothing against rednecks of people from the south. However, Robert wasn't just an average, every day redneck. He was the kind that seemed to think every day was Halloween, and dressed up as a ghost to commemorate the occasion. She could hear him, muttering under his breath every time she spoke up in class, saying things far beyond the normal slurs that can to mind when talking about her race. He seemed to have a personal grudge against the half of the class that wasn't white, and some of the students who were. Despite it being a tad hypocritical, Shawanda would call him similar slurs when she assumed he was just barely listening, and it always seemed to rile the boy up. He had a definite anger management problem, and it was because of this, and his personality, that Shawanda had Robert pegged as the guy most likely to play the game, if only to exact what twisted justice he believed in.

"That white boy…he's gonna kill someone and he's gonna like it. Mark my fucking words, if Randall comes the fuck near me…I'm cappin' his ass."


	6. No Honor Among Furrs

On the far western side of the grid, a few squares away from where Shawanda had concealed herself, Meghan Amana stood atop one of the island's two lighthouses. Looking out over the landscape where she would, more than likely, be dying in the near future, Meghan shed a single tear. She could see all the way across the island, to the eastern coast, where the second lighthouse stood, far off in the distance. Perhaps someone else was looking out towards her from the building, although she'd probably never know. Her gaze returned from the far away features of her new prison to the ground surrounding the building, watching and waiting for her knight in shining armor to arrive and rescue her from the tower. Her expression changed from melancholy to elation upon hearing the telltale signs of movement through the nearby forest. Leaning over the railing, she looked to the trees, watching for the person whom she sought.

Down below, Sera Degaia poked her head out from behind a tree trunk, looking around to avoid an ambush of any kind. It wasn't like she even needed to be ambushed. With pure, white hair that had grown past her shoulders, she wasn't exactly the most conspicuous student on the island. She didn't want to waste another second in the forest, where she stood out even more among the shadowy timber. Darting from between two trees, she made a dash for the closed door, only to find it locked. Throwing her whole weight against it, she tried to break in, not wanting to be exposed for a minute more than she had to be. With a click, she pushed forward just as the door swung open, sending her sprawling onto the lighthouse floor. The door shut and locked again behind her as Sera looked up to see Meghan standing over her.

"Hey Meg."

"Sera? How did you find me?"

"Good to see you too," Sera said as she brushed off her uniform and stood up, "not very polite of you, Meg."

"It's Meghan, not Meg…and I'm sorry. Hi Sera. Now how did you find me?"

"Calm down. I just read your note before I left the room."

"My note? But…I left that for-"

"Jason, I know. Seriously, do you think you could just pull off that little stunt and no one would notice besides Jay? I'm sure I'm not the only one who read your note. I just hope I'm the only one who shows up."

"But…Jason…"

"Forget him, Meg. Don't you get how big a fuck up it was to tell everyone in the class where you were going to meet up? That's an easy kill for anyone who's willing to play this game."

"It's only two days from our anniversary…"

"Meg!" Sera grabbed her friend by both arms, shaking her as she tried to yell some sense into the girl, "Cut that shit out! Jay could already be dead by now, and we need to worry about barricading this place up to keep ourselves safe!"

"No! I have to wait for Jason!"

"Fucking forget him! He's not even one of us!"

"One of us?"

"He's not a real furr. He just said he was so you'd go out with him. I'm sorry, Meg."

"You think I care about something that small? I love Jason and I don't care whether he's a furr or not."

"Since when?"

"Since I met Jason!"

"Whatever, Meg. I'm barricading this place up and I'm staying the inside. If you want to wait for your little human boyfriend, you can do it outside."

"My…what? My human boyfriend? First off, Sera, I came here first. If anyone is going to leave, then it's going to be you. Second, what's wrong with him being human? I mean, yeah, I'm a furry, but I'm a human. So is Emily, and so are you."

"Don't you ever…call me a human…again."

Growling with disdain, Sera pushed past her supposed friend and began grabbing anything she could find that wasn't bolted down. She didn't even bother responding to Meghan's frenzied cries for her to stop. She was too preoccupied with keeping herself alive in a game where friends would all eventually end up killing one another. With this in mind, her eyes always fixated on Meghan, who was now trembling and fumbling around with her bag, she pushed a stray table towards the door, its weight inhibiting her from doing so in a timely fashion. Halfway between its starting position and the door, however, the table ceased moving, as Sera heard a much calmer and serious Meghan ordering her to stop. And this time, Meghan had a fireman's axe to back up her words.

"Sera…if you don't stop right now, I'll kill you."

"Meg," Sera gulped, backing away from the table, "calm down."

"I'm quite calm, Sera," responded her friend, "and for Christ's sake…my name is Meghan. Not Meg. Get that through your head!"

"Meghan, please, calm down. I just want us to be safe."

"We can be safe with Jason! He can protect us, Sera! Why do you have to push everyone away who isn't in your stupid club?"

"Meghan…Jason can't be trusted. He's not one of us!"

"I trust him! Why isn't that good enough for you?"

"He's not one of us! Get that through your head!"

"He loves me! He loves me for who I am. He loves me from my head down to the tip of my tail! That should be all that matters!"

"We can't trust him! He's lying about being a furr! How can we trust him?"

"Get that shit away from the door! All of it! Now!"

"Meg, don't be…"

"Meghan! For fucks sake, my name is MEGHAN!"

"Meghan…"

Growling as she advanced upon Sera, no longer content to argue with her former friend, Meghan held her axe up near her head, a brown eye reflecting in the cold, shimmering metal. Sera trembled as she backed away from the seemingly psychotic girl, edging toward the door. On the one hand, crazy Meghan or not, this lighthouse only had one entrance, and was a good hideout where she could probably last for quite some time in the game. On the other hand, of course, was Meghan, who seemed intent on ruining the safety of the lighthouse with her bizarre desire to love that human boy. Slowly, she began pushing things aside from the small pile that she'd formed in front of the entryway. Meghan simply watched, her axe at the ready in case her former leader tried to worm her way out of following orders. Once the doorway was clear, Meghan backed off, lowering her axe and allowing Sera to move away.

"Okay Sera," stated Meghan coolly, "you can stay. However, that door is staying unblocked until Jason gets here. If you don't like that, then you can barricade yourself into the tower. But the rest of this building is MY hideout. I was here first and I have the best weapon, so the decision is MINE."

"Meghan," Sera pleaded, not understanding how the other girl could possibly defy her in the name of some boy, "it's not safe."

"If you insist on saying that," ordered Meghan, "then get in the tower."

Meghan raised the axe once more maneuvering Sera backwards, away from the door and towards the set of stairs that led upwards to one of the highest points on the island. Sera stammered, her usual commanding presence failing her now, at the worst possible time. She was slowly herded over to the tower completely against her will, and there seemed to be no way to talk some sense into her insane friend. Neither girl seemed to notice the door opening behind them, although Sera, from her position, saw the attack coming that Meghan didn't.

There was a thwack as a hard object smacked into the side of Meghan's head and sent her to the floor, unconscious. Sera chuckled as she stepped away from her position, backed up against the wall, and pried the axe from Meghan's hands. Standing behind the fallen furry was Sera's other friend, the blonde Emily Jenson with a set of nunchuks now dangling from her left hand. She grinned at Sera, revealing a set of surgically enhanced fangs before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a note. It was the exact same note that Meghan had written for her boyfriend, and he'd never even gotten to read it.

"Damn fine work, Emmy," laughed Sera, "she just wouldn't listen to reason. I tried to tell her that it wasn't safe to keep that door unblocked."

"Well, we'll show her. This is for her own good. After all, we furries have to look out for each other, you know?"

"Amen to that. Good job on stealing the note, by the way. I would've taken it, but I didn't want you to be left in the dark as to our location."

"Well thanks for that," Emily laughed this time, "Vanders never even got to see it. He's probably wondering where his little pet is. Fucking humies think we're nothin' but animals."

"Fuck 'em all, that's what I say. Help me push this table, Emmy. It's heavy as hell."

The two girls put their backs into pushing the obstacle into place in front of the doorway, effectively sealing themselves into the lighthouse for a good, long time. With Sera having commandeered Meghan's axe, she handed off her switchblade to Emily. Setting aside their weapons, the girls carried Meghan into the tower and deposited her beneath the spiraling staircase where she had intended to lock Sera away. Patting each other on the bag in recognition of their good work, Emily and Sera returned to the main building and began to talk strategy on how they were going to survive the game.


	7. A Peaceful Resolution

Situated on the outskirts of the forest, south of the school, Meli Atalie was doing her best to remain hidden amongst the leaves of one of the sturdier trees that happened to be available. Going by the logic that most of her classmates, would head straight for the nearest building to seek refuge, she took the opposite approach, staking out a place where no pampered college kid would ever think of hiding. Upon bolting from the school, her supplied duffel bag in tow, she weaved her way through the island's forest until she reached the edge of the tree line near the southeastern coast. It had taken a while for her to pick out a tree that she could climb, but climb she did as she now looked over the forest from the tree's canopy.

As she unzipped her bag, Meli almost dropped it out of shock upon discovering her supplied weapon. While she was none too happy with the whole premise of this game, she had hoped to be given a tame weapon, perhaps something like a knife or a taser. Instead, she found several boxes of bullets and a gun, a Derringer .22 Double High Standard pistol, to be precise. All doubt in her mind that everything going on was real vanished in mere seconds as her fingertips graced the cold metal of her Derringer. If this was the weapon she had gotten, there were certainly bound to be others on the island with similar guns, perhaps guns that were more powerful. She'd never even fired a gun before, and yet she had been given one with which to defend herself.

As she held the firearm in her hands, she couldn't help but shudder. Every fiber of her being felt that violence was inherently wrong. Every conflict could be resolved through peaceful deliberation, or so she thought. Now, her whole way of looking on the world had been turned upside down. Deliberation would mean nothing so long as each and every one of her classmates was out for blood. That was a bit of an exaggeration, of course. Meli felt in her heart that if anything, the girls of the class would play the same way as she did, quietly and non-violently. A girl couldn't possibly be a killer, least of all a killer in this sort of game. They would certainly be peaceful. It was the boys who would take this game to heart and play for keeps. That was simply their nature.

A breeze blew through the trees, lifting Meli's skirt slightly as the leaves rustled around her. Caught off guard, still within her thoughts of the game being played all around her, Meli lost her grip on the tree trunk, slipping from her position high in the treetops and falling to the ground. Landing several yards below, she heard a snapping sound and screamed as intense pain shot through her body. Her neck was fine, thankfully she hadn't broken it, or else she'd be a sitting duck, paralyzed and unable to protect herself. Instead, she could see by the way her arm was bent that it was broken. She tried to move the damaged limb, but the pain only increased, making her scream once more. Checking for other injuries, she was fortunate enough to have remained relatively unharmed from a fall of such magnitude. Aside from the broken arm, the only other wound she'd received was a small gash on her thigh. Still, that broken arm was certainly going to complicate matters.

From close by, the sound of running footsteps reached Meli's ears, the pain quickly being replaced by the feeling of fear. Her good arm stretched for her bag, fighting through the sharp, digging pain from her broken bone. The bag was still open, its contents scattered on the forest floor, but still, her fingertips crawled toward the Derringer. As she touched the metal, her arm twitched, recoiling with disgust at the thought of impending violence. No matter her situation, Meli simply couldn't bring herself to use that gun. As she scooped up the contents of her bag, the footsteps grew louder and faster, clearly those of someone running. In her mind, all she could do was chastise herself for having fallen and given away her safe position as she feebly scooted backwards, pinning herself up against a tree as she awaited the inevitable.

From the trees burst three large boys, each one alone looking particularly frightening. On the left side of the group, Antwon Banks stood, crouched slightly with a hunting knife in hand, his eyes darting for a minute before focusing on Meli. On the right, Tyrone Cisneros hefted a large machete, seeming to miss the vulnerable girl before him entirely. In the center of the group, standing a few steps farther forward than his buddies, was Russell Anderson, definitely looking the most intimidating with a Colt Government Model .45 Revolver aimed directly at the helpless pacifist. Meli trembled, raising her good arm to cover her face as she started to cry, terrified. Her fear manifested itself throughout her body as she lost control and felt warmth growing in her crotch. The boys all seemed a bit embarrassed, turning away to avoid frightening the poor girl further as she wet herself.

"Uh…hey…" Tyrone spoke up as the voice of his group, "Uh…you okay…?"

"P-P-P-P-Please don't kill me…I d-d-d-don't wanna d-d-d-d-d-d-d-die…"

"Hey, hey…we're not gonna kill anyone. Russell, Antwon and I ain't playin' the game, man. We teamed up because you gotta stick together in times like this."

"I don't wanna die…"

"Uh…was that you screamin' earlier? You uh…you need to be more careful about that sort of thing…"

"I fell…and I hurt my arm…"

"Which arm?"

Tyrone reached out and touched her broken arm, a little harder than he'd wanted, and Meli screamed in pain once again. Shocked, he jumped back, not wanting to make her do that again. He turned to his friends, both of whom simply gave him looks of confusion. No one had any idea what to do in this game. It wasn't like there was any sort of precedent for the students to follow in order to win. Tyrone turned his attention back to Meli, who was once again cowering against the tree, terrified and in agony. He felt sorry for her, even though by all accounts, he had no idea who she even was. Aside from Antwon and Russell, he had no idea who any of his classmates were. He was a nice enough guy, but he just didn't pay enough attention in class to get to know anyone. He basically just knew who people were from brief memories, like the black girl that talked too much, or the weird girl with the white hair. This girl, whoever she was, didn't even stand out enough to trigger a memory in Tyrone.

"My name's Tyrone…uh…you can call me Ty if you want, but friends call me Wingnuts…what's uh…what's your name?"

"M-M-M-Meli…"

"Well Meli…uh…I think your arm's broken."

"No shit…"

"Uh…I could make you a sling if you want…it'd probably help you keep from moving it too much…"

Meli simply closed her eyes and nodded, her cheeks puffy from crying and her underwear soaked and starting to stick. She felt gross just being in the situation, but as long as she wasn't dead, she was happy enough. Tyrone pulled off his jacket and his shirt, ripping the fabric until he could fashion a sling for Meli's broken arm. He offered her the jacket to bite down on as he propped her arm up and tied it off. She screamed, but at least the sound was muffled. Helping her up, he did his best to offer a friendly smile, but smiling when you knew that you could die at any moment was a difficult task to accomplish. He made sure she was able to stand before leaving her by the tree to confer with his friends about what to do.

"I think we should take her with us," he whispered, "I mean, we can't just leave her out here. She's hurt."

"That's exactly why we SHOULD leave her," responded Russell, "she'll only slow us down."

"Oh," scoffed Tyrone, "so if you get shot or something, we should leave you behind?"

"That's not the same thing," Russell growled, "We know where our loyalties stand. We don't even know who this girl IS."

"That ain't a good reason."

"The hell it isn't!"

"Ant, what do you think? Take the crippled girl who could kill us in our sleep, or leave her here?"

"Well," Antwon said, speaking up for the first time and trying to remain level-headed, "If she's injured, it's not like she's a threat to us."

"Exactly my point!" Tyrone responded triumphantly, "She's not gonna hurt us. There's no reason NOT to bring her along."

"I can't believe you guys," Russell cried, exasperated, "just because you feel sorry for her and you've got the hots for her doesn't mean we should put ourselves at risk!"

"Dude," Tyrone replied, "I just think that we, as strong, capable guys, should protect a girl when she's hurt. No wonder you can't get laid, Russ."

"Whatever," Russell growled once again, "do whatever the fuck you want. But I'm fuckin' shooting her if she pulls anything."

Returning their attention to Meli, the group discovered that she wasn't even around anymore. For a few moments, the boys grew worried, Russell in particular, but the sound of feminine grunts coming from behind the tree where she'd last been seen put them at ease. Tyrone approached slowly, but as he stepped closer, the grunts stopped, and Meli's voice began stammering in response to his motions.

"Uh…p-please don't come back here…I'm almost done…"

"What…" Tyrone asked, extremely confused at that point, "What are you doing?"

"Just…please stay away for a minute…please…"

He stood there, his mind flooding with possibilities of what she could possibly be doing, his male brain immediately thinking of the dirtiest one possible. After a few minutes of images running through his head, Meli emerged from behind the tree, her face flushed as her hand in her bag, pushing something inside. She looked at him, clearly embarrassed, and found herself unable to speak. Also blushing, Tyrone offered her his hand, only to pull back upon realizing that he'd gone for her bad hand. Not knowing what else to do, he walked her over to his friends and introduced them.

"Ant, Russell, this is Meli. Meli, this is Antwon and Russell."

"It's nice to meet you," Meli said quietly, trying to be polite, "I'm Meli."

"Nice to meet you too," said Antwon, " I sit behind you in class, don't I?"

"I don't…I don't know…"

"Yeah," Russell responded curtly, "whatever. Let's just go. The other two decided that you're coming with us, Meli."

"Coming with you?"

"Yeah, so let's go."

"It's gonna be okay," Tyrone assured her, "I've got your back. Don't worry. You'll be safer with us. We're gonna head to one of those hotels on the southern part of the island. We should be safe there."

"A building?"

Meli was going to offer her thoughts on why heading toward a more civilized hiding place was not the best idea, but she wasn't about to argue with three guys who were much bigger than her. It wasn't so bad; they did seem like they wanted to protect her. Her arm was still killing her, but at least that boy, Ty, had stopped it from dangling and moving around. With a broken arm, perhaps it was for the best to head some place with a bed where she could at least rest comfortably for a little while. Ty stayed back to walk with her as the other two boys ran ahead, making their way through the forest on the way to their inevitable destination.


	8. Broken Friendships

Magdalena Santaliz and Inéz Santiago stared at the peaceful ocean in front of them, taking perhaps their only chance for a moment of peace in the game. The two friends sat on the docks, not far from the school where everything had begun, contemplating their lives and wondering, philosophically, if there was anything they could possibly have done differently to change their fates. It was a saddening experience for both girls, as they looked down at their reflections in the calm waters around the dock, realizing that their friendship, more than likely, wouldn't survive the game. Although it hadn't begun yet, soon enough the sea surrounding the peaceful little island would run red with blood, and the peace would be shattered by the sounds of murderers, psychopaths, and cowards, doing whatever it took to survive.

Inéz sighed deeply, looking up at the sky, and up at the clouds, wishing she was home in her native Bolivia. Her family probably still had no idea of the danger that their daughter was in. They were more than likely off at school, or at work, going about their daily lives, unaware that the odds were in favor of their family being torn apart. She had been so close to finishing her sophomore year and going home for the summer. After working so hard on her English as a second language class, the only that would get her was the ability to understand the words of her killer. This thought above all others made Inéz start sobbing right into the shoulder of her best friend.

Besides her, Magdalena's nostrils flared as they inhaled the scent of kiwi mango shampoo, lingering on Inéz's hair. The feeling of her friend's body pressing against hers in such a kind and warm embrace was enough to make Magdalena's heart skip a beat. You see, although Inéz had never noticed, it was clear to any other impartial observer that Magdalena was quite infatuated with the girl. Magdalena had known for quite some time that she wasn't exactly normal. She knew she was unique in her like of her own gender. However, she kept this secret, for fear of being ostracized and worse, losing her best friend whom she'd developed feelings beyond those of a normal friendship.

When the two girls had first met, it would've been impossible to predict that one day, they'd be crying in each other's arms. Judging from their initial exchange of dialogue, it seemed to their professors that the girls were like oil and water, destined to be split up. Four classes into Inéz's first semester ESOL class, Magdalena knowingly made a comment proclaiming Peruvian superiority over Bolivia, and Inéz flipped out. The two nearly came to blows before their professor managed to call security and they were separated. Both Inéz and Magdalena hated each others' guts from that moment forward, until the final project for the class was announced and they were forced to work together to present a report on "Catcher in the Rye." Magdalena was a year ahead of Inéz, so reading the book was far easier for her; however, she couldn't handle any of the necessary artwork or Power Point, which her partner excelled at. Working together, the two girls learned to appreciate one another, and they slowly started chipping away at their distrust and hate, eventually earning a solid B on the report.

From that first fateful display of teamwork, both girls had worked their way to this moment, and now it seemed like it was all for nothing. It was impossible as the woman had said, for more than one person to survive, and the tight collars around their necks only made to emphasize this. Their bags lay open beside them, a pistol atop the supplies given to Magdalena, and a crowbar lying just outside of Inéz's. While the crowbar hadn't received much more than a passing glance, it was the gun that had truly frightened the girls. Despite having watched that girl's head get blown off, it wasn't until their hands touched the cold, unfeeling metal of Magdalena's gun, that the situation became real to them. They recoiled in fear upon finding the weapon and had been sitting in utter silence ever since.

"Inéz…"

"Yeah, Maggie?"

"This is it, huh?"

"C'mon, don't say it like that…"

"Why not? It's true…"

"Yeah, but still…we shouldn't just give up…"

"I know…I know, I do. It's just…I was gonna go home to Peru for the summer…I had the plane tickets and everything…"

"That's nice…"

"I bought an extra ticket for you to come with me, Inéz…"

"What? You bought a…plane ticket? For me?"

"Yeah…I wanted you to meet my family…"

"That's…wow um…that's really thoughtful…"

"You're disappointed…?"

"I'm just…I'm surprised. It's an amazing gesture…I mean…didn't it cost you a lot of money…a lot of money just for me?"

"It's fine…my parents aren't poor…and you're my friend. You're worth it."

While her words had a far more emotional tone to them, Inéz still couldn't pick up on Magdalena's true intentions. Although she'd been caught off guard at first, the generosity of her friend was enough to bring her to tears once again. She embraced Magdalena warmly, thanking her profusely as Magdalena resumed sniffing her friend's hair and rubbing her back with the tenderness she enjoyed employing. Thoughts raced through her head of how little time she had left, and how she couldn't let herself die without revealing her feelings to Inéz. As Inéz loosened her grip and pulled out of the hug, Magdalena's body moved on its own, leaning in, much to Inéz's surprise, and planting a kiss right on her lips.

Shocked, it took Inéz a few seconds to respond, but when she did, it was not a pleasant sight. She slapped Magdalena hard across the face, pushing her away before backing herself up to the edge of the pier, spitting into the water. Taken aback, Magdalena looked at her friend, wondering why she had taken it so personally, when in her mind, it had been nothing more than a simple kiss. She crawled toward where Inéz sat, now watching Magdalena warily, for fear that she might try to sneak another kiss. Magdalena opened her mouth to try and explain, but no words came out. She knew that she'd made a mistake, but she didn't know what else to do without further alienating herself from Inéz.

"Inéz, I…"

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"

"I…"

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"Calm down…please…keep your voice down…"

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO FUCKING DO! IS THAT THE ONLY REASON WE'RE FRIENDS?! BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING DYKE WHO'S WET FOR ME?! WHAT THE FUCK, MAGGIE?!"

"Please…please calm down…"

"NO! I WON'T CALM DOWN! WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET OFF KISSING ME LIKE THAT?!"

"It was an accident…I swear…"

"THAT'S WHY YOU BOUGHT ME A TICKET TO PERU?! SO YOU COULD BE ALONE WITH ME AND FEEL ME UP WHILE I'M SLEEPING?! IS THAT IT?!"

"You're taking this too…too hard…"

"NO! FUCK YOU! I TRUSTED YOU MAGGIE! I FUCKING TRUSTED YOU! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS, BUT YOU JUST WANTED TO DO ME! I DON'T SWING THAT WAY, BITCH!"

"Inéz…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Inéz lunged for the crowbar beside her bag and she held it in front of her face with intense ferocity. What Magdalena had done, in conjunction with the already stressful confines of the game, had sent Inéz over the edge into a mixture of paranoia and fear. She has essentially snapped, and no longer viewed Magdalena as a friend, but as an enemy bent on her own destruction. Gone from her mind were the memories of lunchtimes spent in the cafeteria, criticizing the horrible cooking done by the food service staff. Gone from her mind were the memories of trips to the mall, insulting random patrons in Spanish so they, and only they, would know exactly what was being said. Inéz was in defensive mode, and she wasn't about to let her guard down, only to be felled by someone who she didn't know that she could trust.

Magdalena's begging pleas fell on deaf ears as she felt herself on the verge of tears, both from her friend's reaction and her own stupidity. She was so wrapped up in the crazed mix of emotions racing around within her that she almost didn't hear the loud gunshot that rang out against the quiet sounds of the open ocean. The back of Inéz's head exploded in a violent display of brain, bone, and blood, her right eye missing entirely, now only a hole where the bullet entered her skull. Still clutching the crowbar in a death grip, she fell back from the impact of the bullet, dropping off the dock and hitting the water with a loud splash. Magdalena turned in the direction from which the shot had been fired just in time to watch the assailant pull the trigger a second time, a second bullet blowing her brains out in an almost identical fashion.

As Magdalena fell from the dock and hit the water below, Madeline Swanson walked forward, her gun, a Walther PPK pistol still smoking in her hand. She stood at the end of the pier, pouring the contents of both bags into her own before looking out, over the edge, to examine her handiwork. Both girls were no more, their blood tainting the otherwise clear waters off the island's coastline. Madeline contemplated whether or not she should bother with gathering up the crowbar, but in the end, decided not to. She had no intention of getting wet for a weapon she didn't even truly need, not when she was now in possession of two pistols. She cracked her neck once in each direction and turned around, walking from the dock and leaving her victims to the mercy of the tides.

"Boom," she said casually as she walked back towards the nearby forest, "headshot."


End file.
